Hi folks. I will be sharing my experience travelling on the ECOWAS route to Accra and subsequent encounters in the country on this thread as a series. Check out my blog to read ahead: http://www.naija247jist.com/2016/09/ghana-diaries-road-trip-from-lagos-to.html

A few weeks ago, I visited Ghana for the first time. Not having much experience as a traveller and passionately craving some adventure, I agreed to travel by land, despite doubts about security and comfort on the road. My doubts came from tales of other travellers who had followed that route and experienced some mishap or discomfort. I eventually decided that, as disorganized and uncomfortable as the ECOWAS route might be, the thrill and adventure of seeing new places, doing new things, and meeting new people makes it worth it. I was going to see the West-African landscape, and I knew I was going to have fun, irrespective of whatever happens on the road.
Anyways, lazy, indecisive me could not chose the transport company to travel with. Instead, I researched the pros and cons of each transport company to be able to make my choice. I wanted a safe, comfortable transport that was not too expensive. Knowing the penchant of Nigerians for extorting their fellow humans, I wanted to know what every dime I was going to pay would be used for. In fact, I didn’t believe any of the transport companies was charging the passengers fairly, until I saw how they settled law enforcement officials on the road in each country. Nevertheless, silly me spent more time researching transport companies than actually preparing for my journey and I ended up arriving at the Chisco bus station very late; around 12:00am. The information on the company’s website says the first bus would be leaving by 6:00am
I couldn’t purchase my ticket immediately, the company staff had closed. I couldn’t sleep; the bus station was a mess, people slept and sat at every corner they could find. A mass of bodies, sprawled on the floor in different sleeping positions spread out before me as I made my way to the room where I dropped my backpack. I wasn’t staying an inch away from my laptop bag no matter the discomfort. After all, this was Lagos. I found a man who seemed in the mood to talk and sat with him. He is a Nigerian who has been doing business in Ghana for the past 10 years. One of the things he told me is that Ghana is far from the Eldorado being painted by some people in Nigeria. Life is hard in Lagos; life is also hard in Accra.
Before I knew it; 4:00am came and the bus station came alive. People began to board buses going to different destinations; Accra, Abuja, etc. By 5:00am, the ticket point had opened. We hurriedly queued. I hurried forward so that I would get my ticket early and follow the first bus. That was not to be, as I ended up following the last bus, which left a few minutes before 9.00am. ‘Business Class’ was written boldly on my ticket but there was nothing business-like about the pre-departure services. Everything was disorganized; piles upon piles of baggage scattered in front of the office under the drizzles, people scrambling forward when the transport officials called out, only to be sent back. The scene can only be described as organized chaos.

To be continued

Interested in your story and experience! Keep it up.

JoRev:
Interested in your story and experience! Keep it up.

Thanks. Another update is due today

I will definitely follow this thread...

. We were given a pack of Jollof rice, a bottle of water, and popcorn. Google map will tell you that Lagos to Accra is 9 hours by road. The transport company told us we would spend maximum 12 hours on the road. Both of them were wrong. Due to irrelevant delays by law enforcement agents and bad roads, the journey took over 15 hours. It is a shame to say that the worst part of the road is within Nigeria, just before the border with Republic of Benin. This is also where we had the longest delay as different law enforcement agencies stopped us on the way to check us. There were several checkpoints manned by different agencies; customs, immigration, police, NDLEA, etc. The longest stop was at the border crossing in Owode. I witnessed corruption perpetrated by Nigerian law enforcement agents first hand. I saw vehicles with contrabands such as rice cross the border and all the driver has to do is just squeeze a note or two in the hand of the customs officer.
‘Nigeria is corrupt,’ says an official from the transport company, ‘but Ghana is more corrupt.’
Finally, the bus entered the republic of Benin, and had a stopover to sort out things with the country’s authorities. What I noticed, which other passengers also agreed to was the discrepancy between the Nigerian side and the benionoise side of the border. While the Nigerian side looked rugged and rural, with an untarred road, the Benin side was lively, with better houses and a very smooth road running through it. I thought things should be vice versa. As the bigger neighbour, we should have better infrastructure.
The bus finally moved on, through several towns and villages. Two hours later, we entered Cotonou, the largest city in Benin. I must say, it’s a beautiful city on the coast, although much smaller and less imposing than Lagos, or even Abuja. From Cotonou we headed to the Togolese border. The beach stretched on endlessly to our left. The Togo-Benin border was the most beautiful and the least stressful to cross. We didn’t waste time at all. The immigration officials on both sides recognized the transport company and waived us quickly. However, we had to alight and cross into Togo on foot. I found it weird but other passengers said it was normal. A few hours later, the bus entered Lome, the capital of Togo, which I can describe as been partially on water. It’s a small city with a long stretch of beach.
At the Togo-Ghana border, I found the manner the Ghanaian immigration officer addressed us to be a little condescending, as if we were immigrants. He told us that Ghana was better than Nigeria and we should be happy to be going to a place where the electricity is stable and the road network is good unlike Nigeria. So Ghana has now turned to greener pastures for Nigerians. We have to change our time to Ghana time at the border because Ghana is 1 hour behind Nigeria. Finally, we arrived Accra at 12:30am. A journey that should take 9 hours took us 15 hours!

nice, will visit your blog this week.

Good job bro. I expect more updates really, because this is interesting

I enjoyed reading your travelogue. Please, add more photos because I'd be following you on your journey via NL.

Wow, that's cool..

Very nice. Is there more?

Interesting read but unfortunately the story seems to take forever....even clicked on blog link couldn't find more...

abeg we need update o lol

Nice one. Every thing u hv said is 100% accurate.

Good and detailed post..thanks..

Waiting for more

The biggest bus station in Accra is known as Circle, situated near Adabraka, close to Kwame Nkrumah Interchange. All the buses taking people from Lagos usually stop here. There is also a huge Nigerian influence in the area. Vienna City, a very popular hangout spot for Nigerians and also a business spot for Nigerian prostitutes, is located here.

I took a cab straight from Circle to East Legon, where my brother lived. I can only compare East Legon with the Lekki residential area in Lagos. It is cool, beautiful and serene. I really admire the infrastructure in Ghana which I must confess, is better maintained than here in Nigeria. But I couldn't but notice the dominant presence of Nigerian businesses. They used Dangote cement to build houses, subscribe to Globacom telecoms network and bank with UBA and GTB, all Nigerian brands. There are also Nigerians everywhere you go, and you would easily notice them; they are never quiet. There was even an Igbo chief on our street in East Legon with the Nigerian coat of arms boldly engraved on his compound gate.

While I have met several foreigners in Nigeria, they usually don't mix up freely with the local population the way they do in Accra. You can easily sight a white man drinking beer at a roadside bar. I couldn't help converting prices to naira and this was how I realized things are more expensive. A bottle of beer for instance, was around 5 Cedis and this was around 500 naira. In 2015, many beer palours still sold for N250.

They also had a couple of delicacies I would have loved to see in Nigeria, like the coconut water, which is sold in restaurants and street corners and served chilled with a straw. This drink is simply wonderful.

The day after my arrival, we visited a lounge in downtown Accra and more than 70% of the songs played there were Nigerian. As we walked past the parking lot, we spotted a range rover without plate number. It was not difficult to realised they were Nigerians. We ended up partying together that night.

petesunday:
The biggest bus station in Accra is known as Circle, situated near Adabraka, close to Kwame Nkrumah Interchange. All the buses taking people from Lagos usually stop here. There is also a huge Nigerian influence in the area. Vienna City, a very popular hangout spot for Nigerians and also a business spot for Nigerian prostitutes, is located here.

I took a cab straight from Circle to East Legon, where my brother lived. I can only compare East Legon with the Lekki residential area in Lagos. It is cool, beautiful and serene. I really admire the infrastructure in Ghana which I must confess, is better maintained than here in Nigeria. But I couldn't but notice the dominant presence of Nigerian businesses. They used Dangote cement to build houses, subscribe to Globacom telecoms network and bank with UBA and GTB, all Nigerian brands. There are also Nigerians everywhere you go, and you would easily notice them; they are never quiet. There was even an Igbo chief on our street in East Legon with the Nigerian coat of arms boldly engraved on his compound gate.

While I have met several foreigners in Nigeria, they usually don't mix up freely with the local population the way they do in Accra. You can easily sight a white man drinking beer at a roadside bar. I couldn't help converting prices to naira and this was how I realized things are more expensive. A bottle of beer for instance, was around 5 Cedis and this was around 500 naira. In 2015, many beer palours still sold for N250.

They also had a couple of delicacies I would have loved to see in Nigeria, like the coconut water, which is sold in restaurants and street corners and served chilled with a straw. This drink is simply wonderful.

The day after my arrival, we visited a lounge in downtown Accra and more than 70% of the songs played there were Nigerian. As we walked past the parking lot, we spotted a range rover without plate number. It was not difficult to realised they were Nigerians. We ended up partying together that night.

Are you still in Ghana?

Why did you abandon the story . I left Ghana last year

petesunday:
The biggest bus station in Accra is known as Circle, situated near Adabraka, close to Kwame Nkrumah Interchange. All the buses taking people from Lagos usually stop here. There is also a huge Nigerian influence in the area. Vienna City, a very popular hangout spot for Nigerians and also a business spot for Nigerian prostitutes, is located here.

I took a cab straight from Circle to East Legon, where my brother lived. I can only compare East Legon with the Lekki residential area in Lagos. It is cool, beautiful and serene. I really admire the infrastructure in Ghana which I must confess, is better maintained than here in Nigeria. But I couldn't but notice the dominant presence of Nigerian businesses. They used Dangote cement to build houses, subscribe to Globacom telecoms network and bank with UBA and GTB, all Nigerian brands. There are also Nigerians everywhere you go, and you would easily notice them; they are never quiet. There was even an Igbo chief on our street in East Legon with the Nigerian coat of arms boldly engraved on his compound gate.

While I have met several foreigners in Nigeria, they usually don't mix up freely with the local population the way they do in Accra. You can easily sight a white man drinking beer at a roadside bar. I couldn't help converting prices to naira and this was how I realized things are more expensive. A bottle of beer for instance, was around 5 Cedis and this was around 500 naira. In 2015, many beer palours still sold for N250.

They also had a couple of delicacies I would have loved to see in Nigeria, like the coconut water, which is sold in restaurants and street corners and served chilled with a straw. This drink is simply wonderful.

The day after my arrival, we visited a lounge in downtown Accra and more than 70% of the songs played there were Nigerian. As we walked past the parking lot, we spotted a range rover without plate number. It was not difficult to realised they were Nigerians. We ended up partying together that night.

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